Oil and gas company NIS (BETAPHOTO/EMIL VAS)
The Serbian authorities should not set any conditions regarding future business operations to Hungary’s MOL, including the operation of the refinery in Pancevo, owned by oil and gas company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), Nenad Gujanicic, chief broker in brokerage house Momentum, told BETA on June 9.
He said that no investor would accept conditions which could cause losses in the future. “It is not good to set any business conditions to MOL, including continued production at the Pancevo refinery, if the company buys a controlling stake in NIS from Russia’s Gazprom, This is misinterpreted in the public as a possible condition,” Gujanicic said commenting on the statement by Mining and Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic that MOL’s intention to shut down the Pancevo refinery is the red line for Serbia.
He also said that Serbia has no role in the sale of the controlling stake in NIS, adding that the main problem is posed by the fact that the Russian company “is not willing to sell its stake, and has been therefore delaying it, while awaiting a change in the geopolitical situation, because it was not its own voluntary decision to sell its shares.”
When asked whether Serbia could use pre-emptive right in case of failed talks between Gazprom and MOL, Gujanicic replied that “it is not the best solution, but would be the best one in the worst scenario – if NIS is not able to work.”
He also said that Serbia’s position in the current circumstances is unpleasant, but that something could be done with a proactive approach, but that would mean taking sides.
“Sanctions were imposed against NIS for to influence Serbia’s foreign policy, which is 'somewhere in between.’ If Serbia has chosen the West, it could have diplomatically send a message to the US that it would take over the management of NIS and ‘freeze’ Gazprom’s ownership in the company, as Germany did in some Russian-owned refineries. This move would have allowed Belgrade to examine whether the Americans would tolerate such a decision and whether NIS could have avoided sanctions,” Gujanicic said.
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